Capitan Water System, NM
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.1 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. Lead was measured in sampled homes but the 90th percentile is under both action levels. EPA's health goal for lead is zero, so test your own tap if your home was built before 1986 or anyone in it is pregnant or a young child.
About Capitan Water System
Capitan Water System serves about 1,821 people through 851 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Lincoln County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3512514; phone on file: 575-354-2247. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Capitan Water System is 2.1 ppb across 1 monitoring period, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.1 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 504 New Mexico systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 14 are over 15 ppb right now and 46 have gone over at some point. Capitan Water System's 2.1 ppb sits at the 66th percentile in New Mexico and the 74th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Lincoln County
18 other systems share Lincoln County; 13 of them have a higher latest lead result than Capitan Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Ruidoso Water System | 15,947 | 2.3 ppb |
| Alto Lakes Water And Sanitation District | 2,870 | 6.1 ppb |
| Ruidoso Downs Water System | 2,146 | 1.5 ppb |
| Carrizozo Water System | 1,136 | 2 ppb |
| Cds Rainmakers Util Llc Rancho Ruidoso | 877 | 2.5 ppb |
| Bonita Park Nazarene Conference Center | 460 | 4.2 ppb |
| Sun Valley Water And Sanitation District | 443 | 36.1 ppb |
| Lincoln Hills Water Co-Op | 338 | 0 (not detected) |
| Corona Water System | 333 | 1.2 ppb |
| Alto Mountain Village | 271 | 4.3 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Capitan, NM may offer free or low-cost kits through the utility. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Capitan Water System whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.